Season 3
Believing The Good News EP125
Created In Love EP124
Sons Of Freedom EP123
Hearing EP122
Grace Upon Grace EP121
In Grace In Papa's Bosom EP120
Restoring Love EP119
Deliverance From Sin EP118
Better Things To Come EP117
From the transcript... If Jesus dealt with sin, Jesus dealt with death. And he did because he got up. Yeah, his resurrection is proof of it. And we were included. I swear I want to live in that gospel. Renewing my mind, believing in my heart of hearts that I have conquered death. And I have life everlasting. So a life. What is that? Knowing God. Knowing the Father. Knowing Jesus. What's that? Live every day in relation to Him. Walk with Him. Listen to Him. Speak to Him. Have relationships. You have conversations. That's what's exciting. I think that's part of, we go back to part of our journey and our understanding of things now versus... what it was 50 years ago. Five. Ten. Five or ten for sure.
From the transcript... I don't even remember what happened, but the Lord gave me an insight that I've never had before. And I don't know why. I mean, it's not that big of a deal or a revelation, but it was feeding me. I was listening. Or reading. That's what it was. I was reading Robin Smith's book, I think. I don't know. She's got a new book, Face to Face with God. Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. Basically walking through that. But anyway, Romans 8. Verse 30, 31, where does it say?
From the transcript... We've just been talking. The reason I'm here talking to you right now is I've written a book. But the Lord orchestrated the events of getting this book to print. The title of it is Before Time, Our Origin in Christ. You can go to Amazon.com to search the title. And my name, James Alderman. What if the gospel is better news than we ever imagined? I was thinking that you said something to me about freedom in America's 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence. I know you're a little younger than me, so I don't know how much you recall about 1976 at the 200th. 1976? I was like six. No, I was eight. 76? Yeah, I was eight. So you probably don't have much memory of that year and time. How old were you? I was, well, 11. And you remember it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Seems like I remember some candles or something, tall candles being flagged and having 1776 on or something. Yeah, well, I remember one, the Bicentennial Quarters. The Bicentennial. A bunch of those. I still got a bunch of those that I've kept all these years. And I remember our school had a lot of emphasis about it from an education standpoint on the Declaration of Independence and such. And then having around the 4th of July weekend, I assume,..
From the transcript.... My sheep know my voice. Is that what he said? Yeah. My sheep hear my voice. He said both of them. Hear my voice. I think he did say know though. Because he went on to say, let's get into the technicality of words. All the words before me were things of policy. Yeah, here I am. Let me see what the New King James says. Let me bring up the real Bible. Let me see what the New King James says. Well, he said, be my memories. The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, leads them out. He knows them, for they know his voice. And they know. He calls my name because he knows them. They know his voice. Yeah. So there wasn't any conditionality in any of those statements. It's just a fact.
From the transcript... But when you get to Jesus and His finished work, all that goes away. I'd rather not get into that. God is not imputing our trespasses against us. He reconciled us to Himself in Christ. We didn't have anything to do with it. Just like in Adam, where we fell, we didn't have anything to do with it. Listen, I don't know what that fruit in the garden tasted like. I didn't eat it. And I don't know what that cup they put to the lips of Jesus at the cross tasted like either, because I didn't sip it. But I am the beneficiary. Amen. It seems like Paul said, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Jesus, the last Adam, came and entered into the death of the first Adam on behalf of all humanity. I forget the exact count, but four or five times in Romans 5 Paul runs that contrast. He'll say something about the first Adam, and then he'll say, "Much more"—that's the King James Version, anyway. Much more. Super-abounding grace.
From the transcript... Hey, be sure to run through those potholes right there. Make me feel at home. Oh, well. Takes a son to know the father. I was reading this morning. For a little bit, I got to read some. John 1:18, man, that's so good. And then you pair that with John's gospel words—the one laying on Jesus' bosom. John, the night before he was betrayed, he's laying on Jesus' chest. What a picture. The Son coming from the bosom of the Father, revealing our relationship in him, with the Father. And here we have John laying on his bosom. I mean, it's a revelation. Yes. Where we come from and where we are. Yes. And where we'll forever be. Yes, that's a beautiful picture. Just those two verses. Yes. In the bosom. I would say, okay, I'm thinking about Hebrews 2. “I and the children that you have given me.” And phraseology that's there. He's unashamed to call us brother. The fact that he is identifying with us. And I think about the scene in Revelation where God himself wipes away all tears. He's trying to give us language to convey to us the deepest love and the greatest intimacy. The most tender and safest place. He's trying to destroy the idea that God's way out there and we're over here.
From the transcript... In that story of what Jesus does with the woman at the well, about “I don't condemn you, go and sin no more,” somewhere he's striking that full of grace, full of truth person that he is, and of that fullness we have received. What McDonald was talking about, I think, he was restating that concept. God forgives us of our sins because that's what love does. It keeps no record of wrong. But his love is so passionate and strong, he can't leave us there. He is saving us from our sins. Until we come to that place of agreement, we go and sin no more. And that's what he's raising up—sons that see as he sees. See Him, we realize… I mean, that's where life is. Sin is just a seeking satisfaction outside of where true fulfillment is. True life is, yeah. Being able to see as He sees, we come to understand and are able to make better choices. And we're delivered from our sins. We represent him, representing him. I don't know, man. That's some of the stuff I'm coming into reading MacDonald. No, it's good stuff. He had a way with words. He was kind of like Spurgeon, having a way with words. I mean, he could say something. He had a command of the language. Well, yeah, both of them. Well, they were somewhat contemporaries. Yeah, they were. I think about what kind of schooling system they had back in that day to produce men that had that command of language and deepness of thought.
From the transcript... Hit your wiper so I can see. What you want to see? I know, but I'd like to look out the window. I am, but I'm not going to look that way. Yeah, I think we all get on these journeys following the Lord and trying to figure out what he wants for us and what we want in life and where those two things seem to meet or conflict. And it's all part of our journey that seems to be, for an individual, something necessary for them to go through to get them where God wants them to be. It may not be necessary for somebody else, but it is for them. I used to struggle with that—being where God wanted me to be. One day, it was a revelation. One day I stopped. I was walking through a door in my house. I stopped in the threshold. I picked my foot up and stomped it. I said, “Lord, right now, I put my foot down in Jesus. That is where I am, and that is where you want me to be.”
From the transcript... I'm detecting a little sarcasm. A little? I was trying to put it as heavy as I got it. Yeah, somebody's got it cleaned up now. Oh, you know there is. You ease over here a second. I'll see one. Yeah. A little white oaks there. Man, I'm going to tell you something. Tell me something. Tell me something good, James. I've just been realizing afresh how blessed we are. We are blessed. So many ways. So I have a good life. Thank you for having me feel that same way. I do. Only life I have. Well, I mean… it's a good life. I got a squirrel right there. I could even tree that one, James. There's lots of shifting going on in the world. It won't take half a minute. I could pull up a video that would strike fear in us if we let it because of the things going on in the world. But I am learning—I’m going straight—I am learning just to retreat within Papa's embrace. Rest there. Yeah. Not let the cries of the voices of the world distract me. Sometimes it can be difficult. Does that matter? Yeah, well, I think the temptation's always there, and it can hook you in before sometimes you're maybe even aware that you're being drawn in.
From the transcript... I’m going to read this out of The Message. Romans 5—just before verses 8, 9, 10, because it sets the tone so beautifully: “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged—quite the contrary. We can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit. Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t and doesn’t wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for the sacrifice of death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.” That last line just lands, doesn’t it? He didn’t wait. Not for improvement. Not for readiness. Not for some turning point where we finally got our act together. He stepped in right at the point of our weakness—right in the middle of it, not on the other side of it. And that reframes everything. Because now even the “troubles” Paul talks about aren’t signs that something’s gone wrong—they become places where something is being formed. Not by pressure alone, but by the presence of God in the middle of it. That phrase—“alert expectancy”—it feels like a quiet invitation to live looking for Him, even here. It reminds me of how James says to “count it all joy,” not because the situation itself is good, but because something deeper is happening in us. And Paul is saying the same thing, but with this added layer: you’re not empty in the process. You’re not barely getting by. You “can’t round up enough containers” for what God is pouring in. That’s abundance language. That’s not survival—that’s overflow. And it all flows from this one truth: Christ acted first. Before response, before awareness, before anything on our side—He moved toward us. Which means whatever we’re waking up to now isn’t something we’re trying to earn or unlock… it’s something we’re discovering has already been given. That’s why hope here doesn’t disappoint. Because it’s not built on our progress—it’s anchored in His initiative.